Bob Odenkirk Talks to British GQ, Reminisces With Conan on SNL Days With THR

Posted by

2 years ago

This week, Bob Odenkirk talks about Jimmy vs. Saul to British GQ, while The Hollywood Reporter features Bob Odenkirk, Conan O’Brien and Greg Daniels reminiscing about their Saturday Night Live days. Plus, Raymond Cruz talks more about returning as Tuco. Read on for more:

• British GQ chats with Bob Odenkirk, who says Jimmy (vs. Saul) is “a much more dimensional character, and I think much more sympathetic.”

• Bob Odenkirk, along with Conan O’Brien and Greg Daniels, reminisces to The Hollywood Reporter about his time on the writing staff of Saturday Night Live.

• The Hollywood Reporter speaks with producer Thomas Schnauz, who warns that Nacho’s “definitely no Tuco. He has a little more clear thinking. But there are several things you have to worry about with him.”

• Michael Mando, talking to The Hollywood Reporter about Nacho, reveals, “We haven’t really seen what he’s capable of yet. He’s conditioned himself to be very patient and keep his energy bottled up.”

• The Huffington Post interviews Raymond Cruz, who says returning as Tuco was “like getting married again when you’ve gotten divorced to the same person. Big surprise.”

• Raymond Cruz also tells People, “I’ve never seen Tuco as a bad person. I see Tuco as someone who, in his very core, is fair.”

• Yahoo TV interviews Michael Mando, who says of Nacho, “What I really find interesting about him is that he has compassion for other people. He has a moral code that he abides by and within that moral code there is a very rational and almost a moral justification for atrocious violence.”

• Vanity Fair thinks the series premiere’s opening sequence “struck the perfect enigmatic, purgatorial chord, a flash forward to the present day revealing Saul under his new identity working at a food-court Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska.”

• Zap2it speaks with Jonathan Banks, who says he loves Mike “so where we go with it and what we do, I enjoy it because the writers know the character and they take good care of it. And they also pay attention to some of my opinions about who Mike is.”

• Bob Odenkirk, interviewed by Ben Stiller for Michigan Avenue, says, “I feel like the lead of this show is Vince Gilligan, who did the writing, and I’m one of the supporting players—I really do. I may have the most lines by a lot, but maybe it’s just me psyching myself out.”

• Jonathan Banks, speaking with ComingSoon.net, says a part of Mike that he loves is “that you never quite know many, many things. Hopefully, if one thing is revealed, you’ll want to know more about Mike.”

• Looking ahead, Bob Odenkirk tells The Telegraph that, in future episodes, viewers can expect to see “crazy schemes that just might work but don’t work. It never works out and you’re gonna love it.”

• QMI Agency interviews Michael McKean, who says of Chuck that “the master of the universe now is being oppressed by the universe. And of all people, the guy who is helping him out is his screw-up little brother.”

• Bob Odenkirk teases to Independent.ie that Walt or Jesse could appear in future seasons but, for now, the writers “really wanted to establish the show on its own and build its own world and live on its own and not because we dangled more Walter White in front of them.”

• Chicago Tribune talks to Patrick Fabian about his travels and his favorite destinations.

• Reuters reports that Better Call Saul was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, as the event gave “significant space to TV drama for the first time.”

• TV Overmind looks at the current popularity of spin-offs including Better Call Saul, which it calls “quality television that deserved all the hype and praise that it was receiving.” Unreality TV adds, “this is a more than worthy spin-off. The show is breaking cable records and I can’t see it slowing down anytime soon. Moral of the story: Never doubt Vince Gilligan” [No Link].

• TVLine highlights Episode 2’s use of Esquivel’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” a song that “perfectly juxtaposed Jimmy’s mid-date anxiety attack, essentially taunting our protagonist as he suffered through memories of his day with Tuco and the skateboarding conmen.”

• Flavorwire applauds Better Call Saul, declaring, “Saul is signature [Vince] Gilligan: hilarious one moment and tragic the next as it puts forth a complex portrait of a man veering into a criminal world that will inevitably spiral beyond his control.”

• White Cover Magazine examines the series’ Cinnabon beginning, which “opens in black-and-white, and every effort that goes into layering, baking, and making one of those little wonder cakes is given Vince Gilligan’s delicate, artistic attention.”

• Hypable nominates other Breaking Bad characters that should show up on Better Call Saul.

• Boing Boing revisits the best moments from the series’ two-night premiere last week.

• Uproxx points out that Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean starred together in a Mr. Show sketch back in 1998.